Don’t believe DWP pledge to learn from cases linked to suicide – we’ve heard it all before
The Department for Work and Pensions has issued some pretty words in response to a damning report linking it to at least 69 suicides.
The National Audit Office said it could not be sure how many deaths could be linked to poor practice at the government department because the system is so muddled.
So on Monday (February 10), the DWP made a lot of promises.
DWP told the NAO that [it] will look at how its Internal Process Reviews are used to improve processes and prevent harm in future, across three areas – identification of cases, improving the analysis of recommendations, and better prevention.
It will look at how to improve analysis of the reviews “to ensure that the department is aware of any systemic themes and issues, and is able to act to put in place effective corresponding improvements”.
And it will also look at how staff decide whether to carry out reviews in the first place. It will improve internal guidance and communication “to ensure staff are aware of and understand the processes for reporting a suicide”, the NAO said.
The review will be led by a new unit that has been set up within DWP to “improve the department’s approaches to identifying, investigating and learning lessons from customers’ experiences; and to ensure lessons are fed back into improvement processes”, the NAO report said.
Among other things, the unit will also be tasked with improving the coroner’s focal point – a mechanism put in place in 2016 to improve communication with coroners, including about suicide cases.
It will also be responsible for the serious case panel DWP has established in recent months, which it said would “consider the most serious systemic issues” identified in internal reviews and by the Independent Case Examiner.
We’ve had promises from the DWP before, but the deaths have continued.
And these latest promises? I don’t believe a word of them.
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Does it at any point in it’s statement actually say “We will keep records on all actual and suspected suicides resulting from negligence on our part” ?
If not, welcome to the continuing Mushroom Management Model.
I will only believe any of this when they are held legally accountable, with cases of bad assessors going to the regulatory body within the same guidelines that is applicable to the NHS, with a complaints procedure that actually works and is not a copy and paste lip service document, with a procedure in place where decision makers that have allegedly looked at the hcp report and ignored medical evidence written in gp notes are held accountable and where all concerned have proper safeguarding training then I may believe this, until then no I won’t
Until these people scrap the entirely unnecessary and absurd five week wait for Universal Cock-Up then this madness will continue with already vulnerable people pushed to the edge.
The Tory Manifesto, which was largely devoid of content, mentioned, I think, treating claimants with respect. Not much sign of it so far. The legacy of CaMORON and Osborne which involved the scapegoating and vilification of welfare claimants to appease the in-work poor has not ended yet.